Tips to Get Involved in Research
Written by Amil Agarwal
On top of learning an exorbitant amount of medical information, studying for never-ending examinations, and balancing the lifestyle of clinical rotations, you are telling me I need to do research as well? This was a constant stressor for me when I was a first-year medical student. I had no background in clinical research and felt like I had no time to do research. Even if I had time, I had no idea where to start. After talking to other medical students, I knew I wasn’t alone.
The hardest part of doing research is figuring out how to start. It’s intimidating to put yourself out there and ask to be part of a research project. However, I went from essentially no research experience to becoming heavily involved. In this post, I will give some important tips on how you can get involved in research.
1. Take the time to determine your level of commitment.
Before committing to any project, it is important to first plan. Are you just interested in being a competitive applicant and checking off the research requirement or are you trying to learn transferable skills so one day you can conduct your own research studies as an attending? Knowing this is imperative because it helps you set realistic goals for yourself so that you do not over or under-commit.
2. Identify what type of research you want to conduct.
There are different types of research projects you can get involved with. Primary research involves collecting data and secondary research involves using existing data. As a medical student, you must be cognizant of your time. Conducting a randomized control trial (RCT) or other prospective studies may look good on an application but takes a lot of time from Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval to data collection that may take years to get publishable results.
Case Reports, systematic reviews, and retrospective database studies, on the other hand, are all manageable projects to get involved in as a medical student that will most likely yield results from society presentations to publications.
3. Identify your strengths to see how you can best contribute.
As a medical student, there are numerous ways to get involved in a research topic. However, it is best to stick to your strengths and interests. If you have a background in statistics and data analysis, find a group where you can specialize in this.
Specializing in a certain area is the most efficient means of increasing your research footprint. I conduct mostly database studies and my research group has a model for conducting our studies: one student does the literature review and writes the introduction and discussion, another student does the data analysis and writes the methods and results, one or two residents review the manuscript, and one or two attending physicians finalize the work. Learning how you can contribute makes it easier when reaching out to residents or attending physicians to get involved.
4. Find a research group.
After following tips 1-3, you should now find a research group. It is ideal to find a group in a specialty you wish to have a career in but not a requirement. There are many ways to find a group. Your school may have a person of contact that helps direct medical student research. You can also email people in the department you are interested in and see if they have any projects available. Lastly, you can shadow on a service you are interested in and talk to the residents and attending physicians about getting involved in research. All three are great approaches, but I advocate for the latter. When shadowing, you can talk face-to-face and advocate how you can be a productive member of the group. In addition, many institutions have established research groups with monthly meetings to discuss active research projects.
5. Always have a project in the pipeline.
As you do more research projects, you will find that there are many factors that you cannot control. You may have written a great paper and sent it to a resident, but they may be super busy with their responsibilities and the project has halted. During these waiting periods, you can start up a new project.
I always try to have at least one project I am actively writing, one project I am coordinating on the resident/attending review process, and projects I have submitted and am actively managing the journal review phase. This way you control your time and can be the most productive.
6. Depending on your goals, consider taking a research year
A research year is not required by any means but provides you more time to do research if you feel too overwhelmed during medical school. Many students decide to do one between the third and fourth year of medical school. This opportunity allows you to immerse yourself in research. Depending on where you go to medical school, you may also get the opportunity to learn a lot about the field you are interested in applying to as well as gain another mentor.
When making your research plan in the beginning, you should think early about whether you want to take a research year as this may dictate how involved you get during your preclinical and clinical years. You should also ask students who have done a research year about their experience. Every place is different, so you should gain as much information and see if their goals line up with yours before committing.
This was a general overview of how to get started with research as a medical student. Besides supplementing your CV, learning to conduct research projects is a translatable skill that will help you in any field of medicine you choose.
